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Mob tries to set bear alight

A jeering mob has tried to set fire to a terrified bear in northern India, prompting a state investigation. Television footage showed the frightened bear scrambling up a tree in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as one of the men in the crowd tied a flaming cloth to a pole and tried to poke the animal. ''We've ordered an inquiry, a senior government official will hold the inquiry,'' the Kashmir Forest Minister, Mian Altaf, told India's NDTV network on Saturday. The incident took place in the southern Kashmir district of Shopian earlier in the week. The bear eventually climbed down from the tree and managed to escape but its fate was unknown, Mr Altaf said. The attack was reported just two days before India's environment ministry was due to host a global conference in Delhi on bear conservation.